Different Dimensions
by fading ink
Summary: Collection of AU oneshots. Shikamaru groaned against her throat, the redolence of her sweet blood engulfing his senses. Without further thought, he sank his fangs into the tender skin of her neck.


Based on this music meme snagged from everyone:

1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.  
2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.  
3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!  
4. Do ten of these, then post them.

**AN: **This is a request fic I did for **hungrytiger11** on lj - and to say I had fun while doing this would be an understatement! I originally contemplated stacking it with the Musical Instances collection, but as I kept writing, I decided to expand some of these. Tell me which ones you'd like to read more of!

* * *

_Pairing: InoShikamaru_

_Rating: T for some suggestive themes_

_Genre: Slight Romance, AU - other world/Supernatural _

_Dedicated to: _**hungrytiger11**_ (seriously, this girl really makes me smile with her comments!)_

_Warning: cloud-obsessed!Shikamaru and other worldly situations. _

_Enjoy!_

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**Cloud#9 - Bryan Adams**

"So," Shikamaru asked dubiously - for all his natural genius and careful planning, he never had even remotely foreseen _this _particular situation. "You're saying you're a grim reaper sent to guide my floating spirit," he gestured to his transparent form and the mass of people and buildings in the city they were floating over, "back to heaven?"

"Uh-uh-uh!" Ino wagged a reprimanding finger, "You might go to hell as well but that's up to Tsunade-hime to decide," Ino grinned and Shikamaru wondered how someone could be so happy talking about death in general, "Other than that, spot on, kiddo!" she chirped merrily and Shikamaru wondered if she was a grim reaper like she said she was - the pink and blue apparel and bubbly personality weren't really... grim. Just as she was about to say more, a beep sounded and she extracted a cell phone from the folds of her obi. Hell, why did grim reapers have cell phones anyway? Didn't they use those magical mirrors or something for communication?

Shikamaru watched while she muttered something about 'Uchiha Sasuke", "Grim reaper of 2nd division, Sakura Haruno", "Tsunade-hime's judgement" and "Roger, currently at cloud 63B", before he lost interest and started looking about. There were lots of fluffy white clouds... and more clouds. Shikamaru sighed dreamily. Well, maybe dying wasn't so bad if he could see his beloved clouds so up close.

Putting her cell phone away, Ino muttered a few incantations and a broom magically appeared in her hand. She mounted it and looked back at Shikamaru, only to see him staring dreamily at the clouds. "Oi, lazy-ass!" she called, gesturing to the broom saddle and looking a bit too cheerful for an occasion where she was supposed to be escorting the dead, "Hop on! We're going to go to cloud#9 where your trial's gonna be held!"

Shikamaru blinked, "Wait, you mean you actually _number_ your clouds?"

**We're in Heaven - DJ Sammy**

Shikamaru groaned. This so-called grim reaper had been chattering non-stop for the past two hours of this journey and had constantly interrupted his cloud-watching without any consideration. It seemed a guy couldn't even get some peace in death. Was that too much to ask for?

"Darn it, woman." Shikamaru hissed, as the wind whipped by, "how long do we have to fly?"

Ino looked back and grinned wolfishly. "Don't worry, kiddo! We'll be in heaven soon! And you wouldn't believe the clouds there are _pink_- I mean, c'mon _pink. _Sure it's pretty -"

While at another time Shikamaru might have found this information intriguing, now he just sighed, "Are you _sure _you're a grim reaper?"

Ino bristled - exactly _how _many times had stray souls asked her that question? - and veered her broom at a dangerous slope and Shikamaru almost yelped, clutching on to the fabric of her kimono for dear life - which, he belatedly realized, was already over. This woman or grim reaper or _whatever_ she was was clearly crazy.

When they were flying at a horizontal plane again, Shikamaru slumped, too terrified to do anything else - it seemed even in death, he was bound to get into nasty encounters with troublesome women.

"Hey look!" Ino pointed at an obscure direction in the clouds, her grin suggesting she was very satisfied with the scare she gave him.

Shikamaru blinked indolently and looked where she pointed and blinked again, "Whoa."

There was a magnificent kingdom against the backdrop of a full moon, floating in cotton candy coloured clouds, with _gigantic _castles only seen in fairy tales and all sorts of flowers and sparkles and bubbles, and - oh!- were those _fairies_?

"'Whoa' is right, kiddo!" Ino grinned, "We're in heaven!"

**Hotel California - Eagles**

"Shikamaru," Ino's voice was tremulous, with fear, anxiety and despair all mixed together, "What do we _do?! _Those freakin' puppets are just outside the door, and if they even catch a whiff of us, we're dead! And we'll never see Chouji or Sakura or the others ever again! And I-mmph!"

Shikamaru firmly pressed a hand against her mouth and muffled her protests, "Ino - quiet! Or else they'll hear us!"

Ino calmed down somewhat and blinked hard to keep the tears at bay. When she had accepted Sasori-dana's invitation to the party at Hotel California, held to celebrate the success of their fashion company's collection, she had never expected her boss to turn out to be a crazed psychopath, and somehow convert all of the models - Tenten, Hinata, Temari, Sakura, Sasuke, Neji, Sai - into _actual _models with incantations from an ancient spell book. And now she and Shikamaru were being hunted by a mad puppet master whose dream was to amass an army of beautiful puppets that would live forever. Not only that, but aforementioned psychopath had all her friends at his fingertips and was manipulating them to wreak havoc in the city. Oh, and they were stuck in a dreary, dark closet of Hotel California as they tried to avoid being turned into puppets themselves.

There was silence for a while, broken only by the occasional mechanical footstep of some puppet or other that passed by outside the door of the closet, and Ino finally broke it, "Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru grunted.

"Do you think we'll ever get out of here?"

Shikamaru pressed his lips tightly for a moment and Ino feared the worst. Her eyes widened however, when his lips broke out into a lopsided grin and he pulled her against him in a crushing embrace.

"You're so troublesome..." There was something in his voice that had a sad quality to it, and Ino's chest tightened with an unknown emotion. "Of course we will, silly girl. I have a plan."

Ino pulled back, and asked hesitantly, "A plan? ...What is it?"

And so Shikamaru told her his plan to escape - he told her everything except the fact that while it'd allow Ino to escape, he would not be so lucky.

**Sexyback - Justin Timberlake**

"Shikamaru you _slut_!" Ino positively screeched.

Shikamaru sighed in what he hoped was the resignation typical of his character and just nodded. "Right."

'Right' seemed to be the _wrong _thing to say because Ino spontaneously combusted.

"Right? _Right?!_ That's _all _you can say?!! After you flirted with half the girls in the bar and ditched me for that Temari, or Shiho or Tayuya or _whatever_?!"

Internally, Shikamaru smirked - so far, so good. His plan to get her jealous was working; Shikamaru had never considered himself a masochist but bedroom activities were a _very_ convenient outlet for her sadistic tendencies when she became insanely jealous.

Shikamaru put on what he hoped was an offended expression. "I did _not_ flirt with them, for your information. They all just _came onto me_ after I let my hair loose..." Silently, he hoped he looked innocent enough - he knew women couldn't resist him when he let his hair down.

"You let your hair loose...?" Ino gritted her teeth. He committed that unforgivable act despite knowing the dangers of being gang raped by a horde of women! How dare he? "You let your hair _loose_? I can't believe you! You lazy, pig-headed, slutty, man- w-wh...ore..."

Her voice trailed off, and throat suddenly dry, Ino swallowed. Shikamaru was undoing the tie of his ponytail, and spiky black hair cascaded past his shoulders, while some strands fell over his chest... which, Shikamaru revealed as he indolently, _teasingly,_ unbuttoned the top of his shirt, was _very _toned. At the glazed look in Ino's eyes, Shikamaru smirked in that charmingly lazy manner and murmured in a suddenly husky voice, "How about I let you whip me this time?"

Anger all but forgotten, Ino threw him into bed and whipped out the handcuffs.

**Think Twice - Eve 6**

Sweat beads spouted on her forehead as Ino critically calculated her next move - she couldn't lose, not now. Not when she was so close to _finally _winning after all these years. Heart racing, adrenaline rushing, Ino took deep breaths - _Come on girl, channel your inner Shikamru!,_ a voice inside her head cheered her on - and looked back into the eyes of her opponent with determination, before finally making her move.

"Ha, I have you now!" Ino smirked confidently as she picked up the knight and used it to check the king.

Shikamaru sighed tiredly, hoping they could do something - _anything!_- else after this game. He had never thought he'd get tired of shogi, but then again, Ino had always had the ability to push his patience to the limits.

"Think twice before making a move." Picking up his queen, he knocked out Ino's knight while simultaneously checking Ino's king. "Checkmate."

Ino gaped. This was the _65th _time she had attempted to defeat Shikamaru, and she _still _couldn't win! At first it was just a silly joke and she had agreed to play just to see why Shikamaru thought this game was so great; but now... now it was a matter of pride for her! She wouldn't give up - Ino Yamanaka always got what she wanted!

"Again! You must have been cheating."

Shikamaru let out an exasperated sigh. "For the last time, woman, I wasn't cheating."

Ino didn't look convinced and rearranged the shogi pieces with suspicion in her eyes. Shikamaru groaned and regretted ever asking her to play.

**Seventeen Forever - Metro Station**

"Are you sure you want this?" Shikamaru asked his mate with a grim face.

Ino scowled in annoyance and put her hands on her hips in a gesture of annoyance. "Well of course! Just _how_ many times have you asked me that?"

Shikamaru winced at her loud voice and rubbed his sensitive ears. "Tell me why I bother with you again, woman?"

Ino smirked and in her typical haughty, self-assured manner she answered, "Because I'm just that awesome and you love me."

Shikamaru sighed and exasperatedly, fondly, muttered, "So troublesome..." He looked at Ino and spoke with the utmost seriousness, "I'm asking you again - are you sure you want this? After we start, there's no going back. You'll be stuck in your seventeen-year old body forever... immortality is not all it's cut out to be, and time will pass you by--"

Ino muffled further warning with an ardent kiss, and Shikamaru felt his possessive instincts flare to life. She pulled away, leaving his beastly thirst unquenched, and murmured, "You really need to stop over-dramatizing things, silly." She licked the shell of his ear and murmured seductively, "Besides, being seventeen forever doesn't sound too bad. We can put all that energy to good use... if you know what I mean."

Shikamaru groaned against her throat, the redolence of her sweet blood engulfing his senses. Without further thought, he sank his fangs into the tender skin of her neck.

**Riding on the Rocks - Katie Knight Admas**

"What... happened?" Shikamaru asked in bewilderment as his eyes automatically followed the mesmerizing motion of the aqua hued mermaid tail. It was still hard to believe that these mythical creatures of legend actually existed, and that he was having a conversation with a gorgeous member of the species right now.

The mermaid - blonde with ocean-coloured eyes - grinned and waded through the water to get closer to the sandy beach, where Shikamaru was sitting. "I found you and your other companions - the black-haired one was especially cute, by the way - on the shores of the Akatsuki Rocks."

At this point, she pointed west at a jumble of artistically placed rocks in the ocean which formed a deep trench. Shikamaru remembered that they - Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba and a few other survivors of the shipwreck - were riding on the treacherous rocks - deceptively hidden beneath the glassy, crystalline surface of the water - in search of land... and then he remembered nothing but the sensation of drowning, being suffocated and falling, falling, falling deeper into darkness accompanied by Naruto's fading cry of alarm.

"Where are they?" Shikamaru asked urgently. "...And where am I?"

The mermaid's eyes twinkled with mischief. "Your companions are here somewhere on this island... receiving _very _special care from some of the most beautiful of our kind. Oh, and this is Konoha island, by the way."

Shikamaru groaned. He was stranded in an island with mermaids - _women = troublesome!,_ his brain automatically calculated - and he had no idea how he was going to get out. Great, just great.

**Cry For You - Ashe**

What do you do when your best friend just suddenly dies and leaves you?, Shikamaru asked the heavens which seemed to cry the tears he could not for him. It had been hours since he had been standing there, and now, completely soaked to the bones in rain, he could not find it in himself to express his grief in any way other than staring at the sky.

Placing the flowers on Chouji's grave, Ino stood up, eyes red-rimmed with crying for hours on end. She was crying - not sobbing, the tears just seemed to silently sluice down her cheeks along with the rainwater and it wasn't distinguishable at all.

Placing a hand on Shikamaru's shoulder, she waited until Shikamaru mechanically turned to her, and pointed to the raining sky, "Look, Shikamaru," she said in an unusually subdued voice, "The clouds are crying for you."

"They are, aren't they?" The question was rhetorical, his voice was void of all vitality and Ino watched with sad eyes as Shikamaru saw right through her, as if he was recalling a distant memory of the past.

Nothing more was said.

**Baby One More Time - Britney Spears**

"Shikamaru!" Ino whined at her dance partner, who was panting harshly on the floor.

Seriously, this sort of physical labour was _not _for him, Shikamaru thought bitterly.

"Get up!! We have to practice and thrash the competition! I can't let Forehead girl win!"

"Give me a break, woman." Shikamaru muttered.

"What was that?" Ino asked sharply.

"Nothing, nothing."

There was a silence for a few minutes in which Shikamaru collected his breath - darn, he'd have to practice for a century before he could match Ino's flamboyant energy on the dance floor - and Ino tapped her foot expectantly on the floorboard, waiting for for Shikamaru to get up.

Two more minutes passed, and Ino, after much internal cursing and deliberation, decided that a new tactic was needed.

"Shikamaru?"

Oh no, he was not falling for that helpless, simpering voice again, he thought determinedly even as his heart lurched at her adorable voice.

"Please?"

There were those big, blue puppy eyes again. Shikamaru grunted even as his resolve broke. A little.

"Dance with me? Just one more time?"

"No."

Ino pouted.

Sigh. So much for his unbreakable resolve. "... Fine, just one more time."

**Addicted - Saving Abel**

"Hm, Shikamaru Nara... " Ino read aloud as she cursorily glanced at the blue file - the colour reserved for new spirits - and headed towards 'Cloud Garden'. "It says here that he seems to have a strange addiction for... clouds?"

She read the last word out loud doubtfully, her brows scrunching in confusion and wondered if the Management Department had made some mistake. Shaking her head, she vowed to check in later, and with a toss of her blue and pink grim reaper's kimono, she walked towards Cloud Garden, where she had left Shikamaru to wait until his trial.

Pausing at the tall, richly polished gates, she pushed it open and walked in... only to gape in utter horror.

Shikamaru - or his transparent spirit form - was floating around among the fuchsia coloured clouds of heaven with a dreamy expression... and was in the process of experimentally licking them.

"Hey! Don't taste that! You'll turn into--!"

POP!

Her warning came too late. In Shikamaru's place, there was now a black furry rabbit with a tuft of strange pineapple shaped hair on top.

Ino groaned. Striding in, she snatched the rabbit, err, Shikamaru by his long bunny ears - one of which had a metal piercing in it - and lifted him up to face level.

Ino glared. "Now what did I tell you about not tasting the enchanted clouds?"

Shikamaru, despite being a rabbit, somehow managed to look offended.

Realization hit Ino, and she blinked. "Oh yeaaah, I _didn't _tell you, did I...?" A few minutes passed in slience before a weary sigh escaped her lips, "Tsunade-hime's gonna kill me."

Placing rabbit!Shikamaru on her shoulders, she strode out of Cloud Garden and warned, "Now you be a good bunny! You've gotten me into enough trouble already!"

Rabbit!Shikamaru hopped once on her shoulder and made a noncommittal, rabbit-ish sound and sighed, _'How troublesome.'_

* * *

**End Notes: **Wow, I had real fun with this! For some reason, if I panic too much, I fumble while I type, so I decided to write it down instead. Come to think of it, it was almost like sitting for an exam and racing against time... Unexpectedly, most of these turned out to be AU... darn, I've been reading too much AU lately This isn't the first time I've written Ino but this _is _the first time I've written Shika. So I'm really apprehensive about his characterization. Anyway, I was thinking of expanding some of the AUs into multichapters - tell me what you think? ^^ Which one should I expand?

**Notice:** In case anyone didn't figure it out by now, I took the theme of Cloud#9 from an episode of Yu Yu Hakusho I was watching the other day! And if you didn't get Sexyback, well, it's basically a song that hints at flirting with other people's girlfriends. Oh, and BDSM. XDD


End file.
